Moving and school places

[MDH0727]

Hello
I’m after some advice please!! I’m losing my mind & struggle to decide what is right for my family.
I live in a private rented house have been here 6 years landlord isn’t very nice, I have to report him to the council to fix problems in the house. My step fathers boss rents out houses and has one available, mine if I want it...great!! I don’t mind moving my 2 children to a new school they don’t mind either, one problem. 2 schools have a place for my reception child but my year 4 child would be on a waiting list for both schools, not knowing how long she would be on it.
Do I stay put or risk moving and hope a school place becomes available ASAP!? I couldn’t keep her at the old school as it’s a good 15 mins drive and they would be starting and finishing at same times.

Any advice much appreciated

Hi @MDH0727, we're just giving your thread a bump to get it back into Active Conversations. Hopefully some Mumsnetters will be along soon with some advice.

How is home schooling going? Could you see yourself doing that longer with the yr4 child? What are the secondary schools like near the new house? Have any of the new schools ever gone above PAN?

If she is yr4 now, in September she will be yr5 so 9/10. Would she be responsible enough to be dropped near school early and picked up a little after school for a while? It sounds as if the current house is unsuitable so whenever you move you will probably face this and better to be settled before you need to apply to secondary school.

Hi home school is going okay, but I can see she isn’t really learning much from what she has been doing.(work set online by teachers) I work part time so wouldn’t be able to home school as much as she would need, also she could be on the waiting list for a year if not more. Secondary schools are good, better than where I am atm. She will be going into year 5 in September, I don’t think I’d be able to afford the petrol everyday if I’m honest. Sorry what does PAN mean?

Personally I would move. Horrible landlords can make your life very difficult. Do either of the schools with reception spaces put siblings as an admissions category (and one of the first)? In which case if you get your reception child in your other child would go nearer the top on any wait list.

I would move because to be totally honest I can't see kids going back to school full time in September so you'll have time to sort out the driving issue.

Pan means the published admission number. It is generally a multiple of 15. It means how many the school is generally able to accept. If the numbers are not multiples of 15 so say if it was 31 in year 5 last year then it is an indication that people have won appeals. As your child will be in yr5 then you can appeal to the school for a place and they can go over the PAN. You need to show why your child would benefit more than the existing children will suffer from having an extra class member. You can't use the travel and two schools as a problem but you can argue that they will be happier with their sibling. You can also look at the other reasons the new school would be better so if you child likes chess and there is a chess club in the new school but not the old school then that might be a reason to appeal. In the primary board you might get more support for an appeal.

Other than the lack of a space it does sound as if the move would be beneficial (better accommodation, secondary school etc.) so I would go for it. If either of the schools have more than one yr4 class then you might be more likely to get a place.